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Late Modern European Discussions and Arguments on Various Subjects. By John Henry Cardinal Newman. With an Introduction by James Tolhurst and Notes by the late Gérard Tracey, completed by James Tolhurst. [The Works of Cardinal John Henry Newman, Birmingham Oratory, Millennium Edition, Volume VII.] (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. 2004. Pp. xlix, 490. $40.00.)

After the astonishing success of his Apologia pro vita sua (1864), which effectively restored his reputation among the English public, both Protestant and Catholic, John Henry Newman (1801-1890) went on to publish two major works: An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870) and A Letter Addressed to the Duke of Norfolk (1875); he also re-published many of his earlier writings that had gone out of print but whose re-appearance was surprisingly well received. For these volumes of re-prints,"he dusted down his earlier pieces for the two volume Essays Critical and Historical [1871], his three volume Historical Sketches [ 1872-1873] and his Discussions and Arguments on Various Subjects [1872]" (p. ix).

Discussions and Arguments is a "rather haphazard" collection of a half-dozen items: (I) "How to Accomplish It" reproduces a two-part article that was originally published as "Home Thoughts Abroad.-No. II." in the British Magazine (1836); (II) a set of four sermons that became Tract 83: Advent sermons on Antichrist (1835), but was retitled here as "The Patristical Ideal of Antichrist"; (III) a series of eight lectures that became Tract 85, Part I: Lectures on the scripture proof of the doctrines of the Church (1837), retitled here as "Holy Scripture in its Relation to the Catholic Creed"; (IV) a set of seven letters to The Times (1841) originally published in pamphlet-form as "The Tamworth reading room"; (V) a set of eight letters on the Crimean War (1854-56)-"Who's to blame?"-originally published in an Irish newspaper, The Catholic Standard (1855); and (VI) a lengthy book review, originally published in The Month (1866), about Sir Robert seeley's Ecce Homo and retitled here as "An Internal Argument for Christianity. …

JohnHenryNewman. a Saint in the Making; an Outstanding Theologian, He Has Been Called the Greatest Churchman of the 19th Century. His Wisdom and Literary Brilliance Won Admiration Both before and after He Became a Catholic. MAUREEN MESSENT Looks at the Life of JohnHenryNewmanMessent, Maureen.
Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, England), September 19, 2010